New research by University of Vermont Associate Professor of Medicine Jeffrey Spees, Ph.D., and colleagues has identified a new tool that could help facilitate future stem cell therapy for the more than 700,000 Americans who suffer a heart attack each year. The study appeared online in Stem Cells Express.

Stem cells, which can come from embryos, fetal tissue and adult tissues, have the potential to develop into a variety of cell types in the body, such as muscle cells, brain cells and red blood cells. These cells also possess the ability to repair human tissues. The field of regenerative medicine – which explores the viability of using embryonic, fetal and adult stem cells to repair and regenerate tissues and organs – has struggled to successfully graft cells from culture back into injured tissue. Read full story